Thread
Mac-Mini ReDux Fail . . . but it's OK!
A couple of years ago, I decided to do a hack that'd be what I thought of as a Mac Mini. I eBayed a 12" MacBook Top Panel to test its suitability for the side panels. I wanted to have White-Light-Logos on the sides or a spot to make a pair of Rainbow Logos. Everything looked good, so I got another lid for the other side panel.
I found a ComPaq Presario SR1000Z sitting next to the compactor fairly recently and snagged it. The front panel and drives . . . heck, the whole thing was in great shape, but it wasn't really something I wanted to use. After a while I noticed how nicely the curve of the front bezel's top could be made concentric with the curve on the corners of the 12" MacBook lids. I finally realized that I could lop the grille off the bottom, lop the front bezel off just below the rounded A/V Bezel at the bottom of the I/O Stack and use a strip of clear Plexi as a spacer in between. With drive access LEDs lined up behind the clear plexi spacer should make it look like it was designed to be that way.
Unfortunately, there's not nearly enough room for my Micro-ATX ATOM NetTop board, but the Silver Sides and Gloss/Matte Black front bezel will make this a perfectly styled expansion chassis for HP-Maxi, the 3g HP Pavilion dm1 that's my main machine for the nonce. Who knows, maybe I'll wind up with a Hackintoshable MoBo that'll fit in there some day.
Meanwhile, a few IDE/ATAPI <-> USB2 adapters for the Zip & Opticals, a FireWire bridge for the HDD, Powered Hubs and a PSU to run the thing and it'll be really useful without a Proc on board. [}
] ]'>
It's just roughed out for now, lots of tooling scars to clean up after the rest of the hackin' is done. The rest is pretty straight-forward metal and plastics fabrication work, other than widening the FDD opening in the glossy bezel, but I may be able to pull that off. Polishing plastic isn't something I enjoy unless it can be done with flames! [
] ]'>
I'll post some better pics as soon as I can lop off the extra sheet metal at the bottom and get it standing on its own four feets.
I found a ComPaq Presario SR1000Z sitting next to the compactor fairly recently and snagged it. The front panel and drives . . . heck, the whole thing was in great shape, but it wasn't really something I wanted to use. After a while I noticed how nicely the curve of the front bezel's top could be made concentric with the curve on the corners of the 12" MacBook lids. I finally realized that I could lop the grille off the bottom, lop the front bezel off just below the rounded A/V Bezel at the bottom of the I/O Stack and use a strip of clear Plexi as a spacer in between. With drive access LEDs lined up behind the clear plexi spacer should make it look like it was designed to be that way.
Unfortunately, there's not nearly enough room for my Micro-ATX ATOM NetTop board, but the Silver Sides and Gloss/Matte Black front bezel will make this a perfectly styled expansion chassis for HP-Maxi, the 3g HP Pavilion dm1 that's my main machine for the nonce. Who knows, maybe I'll wind up with a Hackintoshable MoBo that'll fit in there some day.
Meanwhile, a few IDE/ATAPI <-> USB2 adapters for the Zip & Opticals, a FireWire bridge for the HDD, Powered Hubs and a PSU to run the thing and it'll be really useful without a Proc on board. [}
] ]'>It's just roughed out for now, lots of tooling scars to clean up after the rest of the hackin' is done. The rest is pretty straight-forward metal and plastics fabrication work, other than widening the FDD opening in the glossy bezel, but I may be able to pull that off. Polishing plastic isn't something I enjoy unless it can be done with flames! [
] ]'>I'll post some better pics as soon as I can lop off the extra sheet metal at the bottom and get it standing on its own four feets.
I don't think I made it clear: the bottom 2/3 of the chassis will be removed and the front bezel shortened.
Almost all of the sheet metal visible in the middle pic will have been removed during the final back panel modification.
Finished size will be about 9.25" High x 7.5"wide x 11.125" Deep.
There will only be a bit of matte black plexi side panel showing underneath the silver side panelss to match the sides of the front bezel and the matte black plexi top cover.
Almost all of the sheet metal visible in the middle pic will have been removed during the final back panel modification.
Finished size will be about 9.25" High x 7.5"wide x 11.125" Deep.
There will only be a bit of matte black plexi side panel showing underneath the silver side panelss to match the sides of the front bezel and the matte black plexi top cover.
After a bit of poking around, test fitting, drilling out some pop-rivets, cutting, notching, more drilling and pop-riveting, here's a better look at the final dimensions and the beginnings of the interior framing.
After I noodle out a way to attach the front bezel without the clips in the lower section of the frontspiece and the cut down or replace the locking jaw mechanism at the top, I can cut and bend the remaining chassis waste to fit within the confines of the final inner dimensions.
Gotta find a small PSU amongst the stuff or source one that's shallow enough to work well within the cubic available.
If you look closely, you can see where I've cut away some of the wast at the back end of the other side . . .
. . . more pics to follow.
After I noodle out a way to attach the front bezel without the clips in the lower section of the frontspiece and the cut down or replace the locking jaw mechanism at the top, I can cut and bend the remaining chassis waste to fit within the confines of the final inner dimensions.
Gotta find a small PSU amongst the stuff or source one that's shallow enough to work well within the cubic available.
If you look closely, you can see where I've cut away some of the wast at the back end of the other side . . .
. . . more pics to follow.
I showed this project thread to the grlf and it's the first hack she's shown any interest in at all, or voiced an interest in watching the progress . . .
. . . maybe because she wants one like it as an expansion chassis for her Lenovo sub-notebook . . .
. . . but still, it's amazing progress on the hobby acceptance front! :approve:
. . . maybe because she wants one like it as an expansion chassis for her Lenovo sub-notebook . . .
. . . but still, it's amazing progress on the hobby acceptance front! :approve:
Just as a random note... maybe it's just me having the issue, but I *totally* can't see the images you've attached to this thread.
Gorg, yeah. I mentioned that to cory a couple days ago. I guess you have to be either trash or an admin to see em. *shrug*
Trash, the ones in your recent 6500 thread are also similarly affected.
Trash, the ones in your recent 6500 thread are also similarly affected.
Interesting . . .
< reloads as attachments >
eees fix-ed? :?:
No wonder nobody replied to either thread! :
Thanks for the heads up, guys. I'll fix the 6500/DEC pics tonight if this works out. I was linking directly to the image files in the "Manage attachments" window. If the pics are viewable to all now, we may have just cornered a bug.
< reloads as attachments >
eees fix-ed? :?:
No wonder nobody replied to either thread! :
Thanks for the heads up, guys. I'll fix the 6500/DEC pics tonight if this works out. I was linking directly to the image files in the "Manage attachments" window. If the pics are viewable to all now, we may have just cornered a bug.
I can't log out to look at these posts/pics because I'd need to find my password . . . :I
But I did check the borked attachment links in the other thread at work after lunch and all they said was "Picture" or "image," IIRC. The newly uploaded and linked attachments in this thread showed up fine at work, so I'll assume everyone can see the pics of this hack now . . .
. . . right???? :lol:
But I did check the borked attachment links in the other thread at work after lunch and all they said was "Picture" or "image," IIRC. The newly uploaded and linked attachments in this thread showed up fine at work, so I'll assume everyone can see the pics of this hack now . . .
. . . right???? :lol:
Yes, they do show now.